Fine arts have the power to inspire, educate and entertain. Artists have long sought to push boundaries, leveraging cutting-edge concepts and techniques to force viewers to take notice. Artist Ben Shahn says it best: “Art is always visionary. Art always disturbs present realities, however satisfactory they may seem to the rest of the world.”
However, what the public finds thought-provoking has evolved considerably. Now, we are on the frontier of an exciting new era in fine art.
These days, artists enjoy access to a broader range of media, including not only the strictly physical materials of yesteryear, but also, fully digital art forms and even the opportunity to blend physical and virtual elements. The result? Awe-inspiring mixed media artwork.
Add cutting-edge opportunities such as augmented reality in art, and it’s clear that the concept of fine art has expanded beyond anything the casual viewer could have imagined even a few short years ago.
These possibilities are exciting, but they are also accompanied by many significant digital art challenges. From competition from AI-generated art to the inherent struggles of selling digital art, there is a lot to consider. Thankfully, today’s aspiring artists enjoy access to many resources and a wealth of inspiration. We will touch on these in detail below, along with the most exciting opportunities in mixed media art.
Understanding the Intersection of Fine Arts and Digital Media
Artists find it increasingly difficult to escape the influence of the digital world. Even those who continue to work with strictly traditional materials and techniques find themselves immersed in a virtual landscape as they leverage social media and digital art platforms.
Other artists are eager to embrace digital possibilities and have quickly found that virtual works are far more compelling when they integrate real-world concepts or features. Alongside this evolution is a blurring of concepts, making it more difficult to understand what, exactly constitutes fine arts and how media might qualify as ‘digital’ or ‘traditional.’
Defining Fine Arts and Digital Media
Emphasizing creative expression, fine arts are aesthetic-driven, created for their sheer beauty or visual spectacle. These works are not meant to serve a practical purpose. The National Art Education Association (NAEA) defines “fine arts” as “consisting of the visual arts, dance, music, and theatre,” adding that “practical arts that include the word ‘art’ in their titles, serve different educational purposes, and they should not be considered as a part of the fine arts.”
Digital media provides opportunities to communicate through electronic devices. To qualify, media should be created, distributed or consumed using computers or other digital solutions. The intersection of digital media and fine arts occurs when artists integrate virtual elements into creative works that provide strictly aesthetic value.
This concept aligns closely with interactive media, which Britannica defines as any “computer-delivered electronic system that allows the user to control, combine, and manipulate different types of media, such as text, sound, video, computer graphics, and animation.”
The Growing Influence of Digital Media in Fine Arts
Artwork has infused the digital world since computers first entered the scene during the 20th century. As early as the 1960s, pioneers such as Frieder Nake were entranced by algorithmic and computer-generated art, producing then cutting-edge works such as Matrix Multiplication.
This influence has continued to expand alongside exciting technological advancements, which allow artists to not only express themselves within digital spaces, but also use electronics to distribute their work and reach new audiences. Therein lies the appeal of social media for artists, with highly visual platforms transforming traditional artists into culturally significant creators.
Techniques for Blending Traditional and Digital Media
There is no one ‘right’ way to blend traditional and digital media, but certain tools and techniques are more likely to produce profound works. And if there is no direction or vision, the artist’s meaning can easily be muddled.
Thankfully, there are many ways to incorporate digital elements without detracting from artists’ dynamic messages. This should be guided by the artist’s intuition and by the intended statement made by any given piece or collection. Increasingly, however, mixed media artists leverage these contemporary art techniques:
Digital Painting and Traditional Techniques
Many digital masterpieces draw on traditional techniques, once reserved for sketches or paintings. For example, layering adds depth in both traditional paintings and digital works. Similarly, digital artists use blending to produce gradient effects and even impasto techniques to add dimension to digital works. Specific digital brushes can mimic the characteristics of oil or watercolor paintings.
Mixed Media: Combining Physical and Digital Elements
Mixed media artists bring a purpose-driven approach to the process of combining physical and digital elements. The UK’s acclaimed Tate (the institution responsible for the Tate Modern) defines this as “artworks composed from a combination of different media or materials.”
While intuition remains important, artists must also understand how to use various software solutions and how to blend virtual elements seamlessly with physical features.
Many artists prefer to begin with digital designs and then carefully integrate physical elements. For example, they may create digital illustrations before printing them on physical surfaces and then enhancing these through hand-painting. That said, installations often begin with physical spaces or objects, which are transformed through projection mapping.
Other approaches are exclusive to the virtual landscape. Digital art techniques such as algorithmic animation, for example, rely on predefined rules to produce complex sequences that, with strictly manual processes, would be out of reach.
3D Modeling and Sculpture
Offering a compelling means of sculpting in a virtual space, three-dimensional modeling replaces physical materials with digital tools, which are capable of rendering surprisingly nuanced models in the virtual space. Although this technique is most frequently utilized for gaming and product design, it has much to offer in the realm of mixed media art, especially when exploring innovations in virtual reality art.
Opportunities for Contemporary Artists
Contemporary artists enjoy expressing themselves through digital media, but it takes extra creativity and even an entrepreneurial spirit to make a living through this unique infusion of fine arts and virtual concepts. Opportunities for selling digital art abound, and with innovative thinking, artists can expand their reach while bringing immersive experiences to highly engaged audiences.
Expanding Creative Possibilities
Many success stories reveal the strong artistic and even commercial potential of mixed-media creation. We’ve highlighted a few of the most awe-inspiring examples below:
- The Johnny Cash Project by Chris Milk. Paying homage to Johnny Cash’s final studio recording (American VI: Ain’t No Grave), the interactive website for The Johnny Cash Project has brought fans from all around the world together in the virtual space to form a communal work of art. As the BBC points out, this project was so impactful that it earned a Grammy nomination.
- Melting Memories by Refik Anadol. Centered around augmented data sculptures, Refik Anadol’s Melting Memories project aimed to highlight the often elusive nature of memories. Drawing on electroencephalogram (EEG) technology, this project aimed to capture neural activity and express it in a distinctly visual form. Meanwhile, melting effects conveyed just how fleeting human memories can be and how they are prone to fading or changing over time.
- Unnumbered Sparks by Janet Echelman and Aaron Koblin. Turning patrons into creators, Unnumbered Sparks leveraged mobile devices to produce crowd-controlled artistry. Featuring fiber netting above an open plaza, this vast installation came to life with gorgeous lighting effects, which viewers could control together while using a dedicated app on their respective mobile devices.
Reaching a Global Audience
Different artists hold different objectives when building digital strategies into their work. While some hope to use digital tools to elevate their pieces, others are primarily interested in expanding their audience. Below, we’ve detailed a few examples of digital solutions that have expanded the reach of both current and historic artists.
- The Louvre’s Virtual Tours. Many art enthusiasts dream of visiting the world’s most famous art museum but cannot realistically travel to Paris. A virtual alternative brings the best of this iconic museum to ordinary homes, where users can ‘walk’ through the museum’s most iconic galleries.
- Google Arts & Culture. Once known as the Google Art Project, Google Arts & Culture brings thought-provoking works from thousands of museums to the digital space, offering not only virtual walkthroughs, but also audio guides that provide fascinating insight into the world’s most iconic works of art.
- teamLab Digital Art Collective. Relying on a collaborative approach to reveal the combined power of art and technology, the teamLab Digital Art Collective draws on the expertise of artists, engineers and programmers known as “ultra-technologists.” Often drawing inspiration from the natural world, teamLab’s installations strive to change the public’s perception of contemporary art.
Collaborations Across Disciplines
While fine art is often regarded as a strictly visual experience, artists increasingly strive to bring multi-sensory dynamics to the forefront. The goal is to fully immerse patrons by engaging all the senses. Many achieve this through the power of collaboration, with creatives across various disciplines working together to achieve a shared artistic vision. Inspiring examples include:
- Rain Room by Random International. Exposing visitors to the beauty of downpour (but with none of the discomfort), Rain Room encourages patrons to re-examine their sensory expectations. Experts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art explain that Random International (the creative force behind Rain Room) uses “science and technology to create experiences that aim to question and challenge the human experience within a machine-led world.”
- Bjork Digital by Bjork and VR Creators. Bjork has always pushed boundaries with eclectic blends of musical genres, but in recent years, this dynamic artist has favored multi-sensory experiences, using advanced technologies to bring powerful concepts to life. With Bjork Digital, this effort incorporated panoramic video and to elevate the already memorable album Vulnicura. NPR’s The Recorddescribes the space Bjork’s work occupies “between sentiment and science.”
- Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return. Funded by the iconic author George R.R. Martin, Meow Wolf began as an artist collective and made a clear impression with its first flagship and permanent installation: House of Eternal Return. A Meow Wolf-centered discussion on NPR’s All Things Considered refers to this as a “massive interactive art installation put together by a group of artists,” adding that visitors “spend hours climbing through mysterious portals into imagined worlds.”
Challenges and Considerations
Despite presenting a wealth of exciting opportunities, mixed media also poses many unique challenges. Some align closely with issues artists have faced for generations, but others are unique to the digital age.
Balancing Traditional and Digital Techniques
Done right, mixing traditional and digital media can open the door to exciting artistic possibilities. After all, no matter, technology itself is intrinsically grounded in artistic creation, as the Museum of Modern Art points out. Specifically, MOMA references the “uneasy coexistence of intelligent networks and dumb stuff, high tech and raw material, the fabricated and the readymade. Technology, they suggest, is always mired in matter, friction, and failure.”
Meanwhile, fundamental art techniques remain critical for realizing the full potential of mixed media; otherwise, pieces risk appearing generic or even being confused with AI-generated art. Mixed media artists can avoid these pitfalls by clearly defining their artistic vision and by selecting harmonizing techniques that complement one another.
Intellectual Property and Digital Art
Intellectual property has long been a top source of concern in the artistic community. In a guide from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Arts advocate and U.S. Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA) committee co-chair Peggy Johnson explains that artists too frequently see their names or images used without their permission.
Online opportunities, while often exciting, can exacerbate these issues. As Johnson points out, “artists and creators fear putting their work online as many times pieces of their work are stolen either by other artists — or used in podcasts, marketing campaigns, and other forms of entertainment without their permission.” Tomorrow’s mixed media artists may need to make greater use of digital rights management tools to prevent unauthorized use.
The Future of Fine Arts in the Digital Age
We are just beginning to glimpse the new era in mixed media artwork. Moving forward, we can expect more artists to embrace mixed media art techniques as they experiment with digital art software and even online art galleries. Artificial intelligence will play a greater role in the mixed media landscape of tomorrow, as will interactive solutions such as VR and AR.
Emerging Trends in Digital Fine Arts
While many innovative thinkers have already experimented with augmented reality in art, this niche remains in its infancy. Insights from the peer-reviewed journal Multimodal Technologies and Interaction suggest that, as AR technologies continue to improve, enhanced graphics can be expected, allowing for greater realism and the enhanced integration of digital elements. Tactile features will also enter the picture, especially as more systems utilize haptic feedback.
Also important: exposing a wider audience to the exciting possibilities of mixed media art. Cross-platform integrations will improve access, with audiences encouraged to interact with pieces from diverse locations while using a wide range of devices.
Preparing for the Future as an Artist
The artistic landscape is constantly evolving, with new techniques, concepts and even technologies shifting our perception of what, exactly, qualifies as fine art. While artists can continue to thrive by making the most of traditional techniques, it’s worth exploring digital possibilities. This begins with exploring fundamental artistic concepts but should also encompass advanced software such as Unity, Unreal Engine or Autodesk Maya.
Unity, in particular, offers a wealth of opportunity, as revealed in a deep dive published in the International Journal of Reciprocal Symmetry and Theoretical Physics. This analysis explains that “Knowledge and creativity are necessary in the frenetic world of game development if one wishes to maintain a competitive edge and relevance in the industry,” adding that Unity “gives artists the ability to bring their ideas to life in the form of experiences that are both interactive and engaging for users.”
Uncover a World of Artistic Possibilities With RMCAD
Embrace endless possibilities as you bring your distinct artistic vision to life. At Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (RMCAD), we are eager to support you every step of the way. Our on-campus Fine Arts program will introduce you to powerful tools and techniques, along with inspiring ideas. Reach out today to learn more about RMCAD’s online and on-campus degree programs.
